Red Tide

What's a Red Tide?

Have you ever gone to the Florida expecting to swim in the blue water and enjoy yourself in the Gulf of Mexico, only to observe a red tint in the oceans water? Did you swim anyways or stay out? If you did swam, did you observe any difficulty breathing or coughing afterwards? Did you ever wonder what caused the suspicious Red Tide of the Golf of Mexico? Well, it is a type of algae, the specific organism being Karenia brevis. The Karenia brevis is a terror to Florida waters. In the article "Quantifying Karenia brevis bloom severity and respiratory irritation impact along the shoreline of Southwwest Florida", researchers studied Karenia brevis in the water and was able to find out a bloom severity index (BSI). Read more to find out more about the Karenia brevis.

Domain: Eukarya

Karenia brevis has Eukaryotic cells with membrane bond organelles

Kingdom: Protista

Feed on organic matter

Phylum: Myxozoa

Feed through Myxocytosis or once did feed through Myxocytosis

Class: Dinophyceae

Has a large number of banded chromosomes and is unicellular

Order: Gymnodiniales

Does not have a hard exterior

Family: Kareniaceae

Are in marine environments

Genus: Karenia

Planktonic Organism

Species: Karenia brevis

Common Name: Red Tide

General Information:

Characteristics:
- 20-40 mm
- Unicellular, flagellated, and photosynthetic
- Cellulose plates surround the cell
- Flagella helps it move in the water
Habitat:
- Karenia brevis has only been found in the Gulf of Mexico and only recently in the Gulf Stream
  - Tampa Bay to Charlotte Harbor region
- Food:
  - Optimal light
  - Temperature (72-82℉)
  - Nutrients
    - Nitrogen
    - Phosphorus

What is a bloom?

A bloom is when the Karenia brevis comes into the Gulf of Mexico.

Why Research?

Every year there would be a time on the Gulf Coast where there would be an unusual amount of fish kills and many people reported respiratory irritation at the same time. During this time, the water would be strangely discolored. The researchers wanted to know what was causing all this distress.

Quantifying Karenia brevis bloom severity and respiratory irritation impact along the shoreline of Southwest Florida

The authors and researchers of the research are Richard P. Stumpf, Yizhen Li, Barbara Kirkpatrick, R. Waynee Litaker, Katherine A. Hubbard, Robert D. Currier, Katherine Kohler Harrison, and Michelle C. Tomlinson.

Data Analysis

The main goal was to develop and evaluate Karenia brevis bloom severity index (BSI) through multiple decades. The researchers took data from the coast of Florida counties from from the 1953 to 2018. The data had already been collected by the Florida counties and the researchers took the data and analyzed it. The data included longitude, water depth, observed Karenia brevis cell counts, counties, fish kills, and number of respiratory programs. They divided monthly tallies and multiplied by 10 to normalize the BSI scale.

To the left is a map where they took the data from.

Graph

The graph shows how much Karenia brevis cells were in the water that was sampled. The researchers were able to determine that the samples were only reliable from 1994 and onward. Before 1994, there was a lack of sampling done by the counties hence why there is some years with x's because there was no samples that year.

Conclusion

The researchers were able to create a BSI that would provide objective reference for evaluating models to help determine how big a bloom is going to be. The BSI scale is from 0-10, 0 being the lowest while 10 is the highest. The BSI can be updated in real time to inform the public about the risk of Karenia brevis and allows for officials to better respond to the bloom. The researchers also found that the Karenia brevis is a threat to the coast of Florida and causes discolored water, massive fish kills, manatee deaths, bottlenose dolphin deaths, sea turtle deaths, and respiratory irritation.

References:

Stumpf, R. P., Li, Y., Kirkpatrick, B., Litaker, R. W., Hubbard, K. A., Currier, R. D.,Harrison, K. K., & Tomlinson, M. C

(2022). Quantifying Karenia brevis bloom severity and respiratory irritation impact along the shoreline of Southwest Florida. PloS one, 17(1), e0260755. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260755

Burton, Rebecca. “Red Tide: Karenia Brevis.” Florida Museum, 19 Aug. 2019,

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/earth-systems/blog/red-tide-karenia-brevis/.

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